SURVEYING THE 141sT MERIDIAN
BY THOMAS RIGGS, JR.
ENGINEER TO THE ALASKA BOUNDARY COMMISSION
FAR to the north, in latitude 60° 20',
towering highly above other moun
tain giants, stands Mount Saint
Elias. From a ridge of Saint Elias, and
running north straighter than the crow
flies, is the 14Ist meridian of west longi
tude, which is the dividing inland line
between the possessions of Great Brit
ain and that of our own much-abused
Alaska.
From its starting point, near Mount
Saint Elias, the boundary shoots for 6o
miles over the great ranges and glaciers
of the Saint Elias Alps to the broad val
ley of the White River, where the pros
pector patiently drives his tunnels on
lodes of copper and gold aid prays
nightly that the Copper River and North
western Railroad, now built up the Chi
tana River to Kennecott, may be pushed
over the high Scolai Pass, thereby mak
ing his wares marketable. What is it to
the pioneer if the railroad should charge
as much as $75. per ton, for is not the
present rate 35 cents to $i a pound from
Whitehorse to Canyon City, on the White
River (see map, page 693).
Just south of the White River, from
the summit of Mount Natazhat the eter
nal snows cast their last defiance at the
boundary. From here even to the Arc
tic Ocean there exists a season of the
year free from ice and cold.
The many channels and quicksands of
the White River being passed, the coun
try changes to the lower rolling hills so
beloved of the white sheep, and to the
low, lake-dotted muskeg marshes inhab
ited by the wide-antlered moose-a veri
table hunter's paradise, where sheep,
moose, caribou, and bear may be had at
almost any time; where greyling are not
caught on hook and line, but are kicked
out of the water, and where the Western
packer calls to the cook: "You blank
stomach-robber, ain't you never no more
going to cook no beans?"
Across Ladue River, where the stream
flows twelve miles to go three in a straight
line; past the head of the Sixty Mile
River, the scene of the latest gold rush;
through Alaska's pioneer diggings of the
Forty Mile; into the Yukon Valley and
up the abrupt north bank; across the
hills of the Tatonduk, the home of the
Fannin sheep; across the Nation River,
and across the barren hills and ridges of
the Kandik; over the bottomless marshes
of the Big Black River, nightly made
hideous by the long-drawn howl of the
packed timber wolf; on, on, always
north; over the Porcupine, skirting by
Rampart House, one of Canada's most
northerly trading-posts; through the lake
country of the Old Crow; over Ammer
man Mountain, the Davidson Range, the
British Mountains; then down to the
terminal monument, to be placed on the
bleak shore of the Arctic Ocean-so runs
the 14Ist meridian of west longitude; in
all, roughly speaking, a distance of about
600 miles.
Working under the direction of a joint
American and Canadian commission, for
five years we have struggled with this,
the straightest of the world's, surveyed
lines, and this year it was given to some,
from the high summits of the British
Mountains, like Moses from Pisgah, to
gaze upon our goal, and to see the deep
blue of the Arctic, dotted with the daz
zling white of wind-driven ice-floes.
The actual visible results of the work
consist of a vista 20 feet wide cut through
all timber, monuments set at intervisible
points not more than four miles apart,
and a detailed map of a strip of country
extending for two miles on each side of
the boundary. At prominent river cross
ings and at the main points of travel, the
monuments are 5-foot aluminum-bronze
sectional shafts, each weighing about 300
pounds and set in a ton of concrete.
At less important points are the 3-foot
aluminum-bronze cones set in about 1,500
pounds of concrete. All monuments are
geodetically determined and will be the
bases for future surveys of Alaska.
The maps, when published, will be
among the finest of their kind in the